WEEK #14, 29OCT TO 4NOV, A WEEK OF MAINTENANCE

      We spend Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday in the Cleveland, OH metro area. I go to MetroHealth on Saturday morning, and they get their blood samples for doing lab work. I am lucky and get in to Creative Images to get my hair cut by Kim. Sunday we make church at Brunsnaz. We see all our old friends that we have been missing. And Sunday night we get together with 4 old friends that we have worked and shared moments with over nearly 30 years. We watch the World Series Baseball game between Cleveland and the Cubs. And we had pizza and deserts. Monday is a day to do some errands. Barb and I get to early vote in downtown Cleveland. And in the afternoon we have dental appointments. The dentist fixes the tooth she had chip back in September. We feel blessed that he is talented and she gets a filling, and no farther major work is done. We both get our teeth cleaned. We do more errands on Tuesday morning, and pack to leave for Columbus after my doctor appointments scheduled in the afternoon. Both appointments are good news. I have lost weight for the family physician, but can not decrease my BP medicine as of yet as it is still high. Barb and I think it is from salt in the fast food we have been eating the last three weeks of travel. The urologist is happy also, and I get put on yearly checks now instead of 6 months.
        Wednesday morning we fly back to Mobile. The crew of "Somewhere In Time" picks us up at the airport, and we go to dinner together back at the Grand Mariner. On Thursday, the Grand Mariner staff finishes the fuel leak repairs to the Perkins main engine in SummerTime with the parts they had to order. In the afternoon they put SummerTime back in the water. The prop has been straightened, and the new bottom paint looks good.

NEW BOTTOM PAINT

We take SummerTime to the transient dock. On Friday, we clean the oily water out of the bilge as good as we can. The first 15 gallons we pump out is water. There is some oil in the next 10 gallons and we turn those over to Grand Mariner staff to dispose of properly. We put a new pig in the bilge. We think we are ready to go when the weather cooperates. We took the dinghy to lunch, and it was hard to start. The little Mercury was in a do not idle mode again. We made it to "The River Shack" for lunch. We had to be towed back after lunch. I  put new gas in the tank, and then the little Mercury runs great, and it idles like it should. I ride it over to West Marine across the river to get bilge cleaning supplies.

SUMMERTIME LOWERED BACK INTO HER HOME